
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990                   TAG: 9007210063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA                                LENGTH: Short

NORTH KOREA WON'T OPEN ITS BORDER

Communist North Korea on Friday dismissed as propaganda a South Korean proposal to open temporarily the heavily fortified border that has divided the peninsula for 45 years.

South Korea offered to open its border at the border village of Panmunjom for five days beginning Aug. 13, allowing North Koreans to travel freely anywhere in the South.

South Korea's President Roh Tae-woo suggested the five-day border opening as a trial period. It would include Aug. 15, symbolically important to both Koreas as the day that ended 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.

North Korea's Pyongyang Radio, monitored in Tokyo, called Roh's offer a "fraudulent propaganda" ploy.

- Associated Press

by CNB